And it appears our kicker is the weak link. It makes me sick to know we out played these guys and they are going to win

How do you judge that they outplayed them?

I saw two pretty dreadful teams incapable of getting out of their own way. One depending on one playmaker who got hurt and another one playing a dangerously incompetent QB.

Dolphins didn't outplay anyone, they lost a game they could (and perhaps should) have won. I doubt there are too many QB's as inept as Mark Sanchez's coming up on our schedule ahead. (Except for Mark Sanchez of course).

I think it is a stupid tactic unless you call it early enough that they don't get to kick the first.

agreed. if you let them get a kick in...it usually backfires

Unfortunately, the game should have never come down to that.

In related news, I just beat the Jets 120-0 in Madden. I feel a little better now._________________
That right there is Catrinel Menghia, hottest woman who ever lived, soon to be Catrinel Alexander if she isn't careful.

So Carolina gets blown out, Clemson loses maybe the biggest game of the year and now the Dolphins have me invest 4+ hours in this game only to do every possible thing in the world to give the Jets this win.

So Carolina gets blown out, Clemson loses maybe the biggest game of the year and now the Dolphins have me invest 4+ hours in this game only to do every possible thing in the world to give the Jets this win.

Something that Omar Kelly pointed out last week in the Oakland game, is this offense is HOT in the first 20 plays. Those plays are scripted, and usually our first possession or two we dominate. I think that's a very good thing with what we are dealing with. That to me shows good coaching, and good execution with plays that we are confident in.

The problem is, at most the first 20 plays is 10 points for this team. After those plays we tend to get very cold, and struggle. We need to find a way to sustain momentum, and not get streaky. My only issue with the playcalling is that we tend to be all pass, and then all run. Very rarely do we see a true balanced attack. I understand riding with what works, but we need to start working on field spreading. Hartline is the only player that gets deep right now. Armstrong NEEDS to get up to speed enough that he can work in the 2 and 3 WR sets to take the top off the defense.

Offensively Joe Philbin has accomplished what Tony Sparano could not after his first season. We have an offensive line that can and will dominate the line of scrimmage against every team in the league, except SF and maybe Baltimore. This unit is truly dominant in the run game, and showed promise today in the passing game.

Ryan Tannehill hasn't shown me enough yet for me to say that he is the starter for the next 10 years. But the good thing is, he hasn't shown us anything to say that he isn't. He truly "get it". How often do we see him check us out of a play into another play that succeeds. I never saw Henne do that in 3 years. Just today when he checked into a draw play on 3rd down and 6, we convert. Little things like that are impressive. He isn't perfect, and definitely is still raw. But I think by week 12 we'll be looking at a much better player than we are now.

I am convinced that as soon as we get 2 offensive difference makers this unit is going to blow up. In the next draft, we need to find 2 pass catchers, and 1 of them needs to be a number 1 WR. The other needs to be a true deep threat that can take the top off a defense. Hartline is solid, and always improving, but he is a low end 2, high end 3. Bess is a solid player and fits the offense better than I thought. Armstrong could develop into that deep threat we need, but he just doesn't seal the deal.

Defensively, this is the best unit we have had in the last 6 years. Run defense is ridiculous, teams just cannot run the ball. Wake is playing out of his mind, but he cannot keep missing sacks. He could easily have 4-5 sacks this season. That has always been a problem of his. We need a pass rusher, Vernon or Shelby may be that guy once they grow a little bit.

Linebackers are improving every week as well, but we need to schematically figure out this TE dilemma. We need to be able to cover them if we ever make that next step.

In the secondary we force turnovers. Clemons, Jones, and Marshall all have an INT thus far. Smith has made some good plays as well. He is definitely better than most Dolphins fans make him out to be. He isn't elite, but you can do a whole lot worse than our trio of CB. Carrol is getting better also. No longer does he look lost, just sometimes gets to aggressive.

Overall I give this team a C to a C+ grade. They have shown us positive signs of growth, and definite things to build on. I am very interested to see where we stand after game 6. At this point we need to not dwell on record, but growth._________________